Animals in the News

Over thousands of millennia a mantle of sediment built up over its bones. The sea receded, and as the former seabed became a desert, the wind began to plane away the sandstone and shale above the bones. Slowly the world changed. Shifts in the Earth's crust pushed India into Asia, heaving up the Himalaya. In Africa, the first human ancestors stood up on their hind legs to walk. The pharaohs built their pyramids. Rome rose, Rome fell. And all the while the wind continued its patient excavation. Then one day Philip Gingerich showed up to finish the job.

READ MORE

An unidentified purple octopus (pictured) is one of 11 potentially new species found this month during a deep-sea expedition off Canada's Atlantic coast, scientists say.

Still at sea, a team of Canadian and Spanish researchers is using a remotely operated vehicle called ROPOS for dives off Newfoundland with a maximum depth of about 9,800 feet (3,000 meters).

READ MORE

Lounging in the shade may sound soothing, but it could be the death of many lizards if global warming continues at current rates.

As temperatures inch upward, the reptiles rest more and hunt less. As a result, 20 percent of lizard species could go extinct by 2080, a new study says.

No matter what we do to fight global warming, at least 6 percent of lizard species will go extinct by then, due to the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, the study says. READ MORE

A huge oil spill oozing toward the Gulf Coast on Thursday threatens hundreds of species of wildlife, some in their prime breeding season, environmental organizations said.

The Coast Guard said Wednesday that the amount of oil spilling from an underwater well after an oil rig explosion last week has increased to as many as 5,000 barrels of oil a day, or 210,000 gallons, five times more than what was originally believed.

Their underbellies resemble a brightly coloured masterpiece by Michelangelo (or maybe Leonardo or Raphael). But Greater Victoria’s native turtle population is being threatened by one of man’s newer creations.

Earlier this month, five baby Western painted turtles – a species deemed endangered on Vancouver Island – became roadkill on Beaver Lake Road.

“The problem is, we don’t expect drivers to see the babies. They’re about the size of a loonie ... But we hope people will slow down enough to see the adults,” said Todd Carnahan, land care co-ordinator with Habitat Acquisition Trust. READ MORE

Songbirds in the US are getting smaller, and climate change is suspected as the cause.

A study of almost half a million birds, belonging to over 100 species, shows that many are gradually becoming lighter and growing shorter wings.

This shrinkage has occurred within just half a century, with the birds thought to be evolving into a smaller size in response to warmer temperatures. Read more

Bear cubs in the South Chilcotins, British Columbia          (Credit: Pat Mulrooney)

After the massive international spotlight on Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics, many people will remember Canada for the accomplishments of our winter athletes. Those who came to Vancouver for the Games will remember our friendliness and our ability to create a society where people from many backgrounds and cultures can live together. But just as many will remember us for something that has always defined our nation: our spectacular natural environment.

The forests, mountains, rivers, and ocean are visible no matter where you go in Vancouver. The wilderness at our doorstep is home to a wide range of plants and animals, especially for a northern temperate region. In much of Canada, you can still find all of the charismatic megafauna that were present at the time of European settlement, including grizzly bears, cougars, wolves, and wolverines. Read More

You scratch my back I'll scratch yours?

A warthog has been pictured being groomed by a huge bird known as a ground hornbill.

The warthog approached the southern ground hornbill seeking the favour, and the bird obliged by removing parasites from the warthog's body.

Similar interactions occur between warthogs and other animals such as banded mongooses. Read more

The recent attack by a captive orca on its trainer at a SeaWorld facility in Orlando, Florida, has again raised questions about our relationship with these top marine predators.

No-one knows what triggered the latest incident, and experts agree that it is almost impossible to determine why the orca, called Tilikum, reacted as it did.

But it does highlight the tensions that occur when we choose to interact closely with these huge animals.

It is also debatable what to do with those orcas, also known as killer whales, that remain in captivity. Read more

One person.

In a world of seemingly overwhelming and unstoppable issues, it takes just one person to stand up and make their voice heard to change the course of history and create a better world for all life.

And it will take the signature of just one person – a young First Nation student from Klemtu, a farmer from the Peace River, a hunter from the Kootenays, a lawyer from downtown Vancouver, a member of the British Columbian government – to stop the trophy hunting of the Great Bear’s Great Bears.

Officials from 13 nations are meeting to discuss conservation efforts to save the endangered tiger. Officials from countries where tigers still roam - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam - are taking part in the Asia Ministerial Conference (AMC) on Tiger Conservation. The conference runs from January 27 to January 30, 2010, in Thailand.

The World Bank and Global Tiger Initiative are urging the closing of tiger farms. Tiger farms, located primarily in China, also exist in other parts of the world. Despite a 1993 ban on the domestic tiger trade in China, the demand for tiger parts is still high and tiger farms continue to thrive. The domestic tiger trade harvests skin, bones, organs and other body parts often used in traditional medicines or as aphrodisiacs.  Read more

The number of monarch butterflies in the Mexican colonies where the colourful orange and black migratory insects spend their winters has declined to the lowest on record.

The colony size totals only 1.92 hectares this winter, the equivalent of about 2½ soccer fields, compared with the previous low in 2004 of 2.19 hectares, according to the latest Mexican census.

Although the slippage between the two years is slight and is being attributed mainly to weather-related factors